Butterfly Leaves
by mangagirl18
Summary: Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi vowed to save the world. A desperate jutsu reset time, and they got their happily ever after. But who says there's only ONE world? Time Travel Dimension Travel
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Naruto and all recognisable "canon" concepts is copyrighted Masashi Kishimoto and his various associates. I own only this story which inn itself takes inspiration from several fanfics including but not limited to the ever awesome fic Time Braid by ShaperV.

AN: This is my attempt to put some twists on a few old cliche's. I love time travel and dimension travel fics, and I thought I'd give it a shot.

Please enjoy. Reviews are greatly appreciated, but don't feel obligated to do so, I'm just happy if you read and like the story.

Butterfly Leaves

Prologue

When tragedy struck; the world crumbling as an unending war released a monster of untold horror and magnitude, slowly wiping out all life; they, the last three survivors, threw the last of their hopes, life, energy and power into a desperate gamble. A technique thay may or may not work, may cost them their very souls, but they had to try.

They succeeded. Time was rolled back, events beeing undone, and not a single person remembering what could have, would have, HAD been. Everyone was blissfully oblivious to the horrors that may or may not be prevented this time around. Everyone except those three poor souls who had survived the apocalypse and now sought to prevent it from ever happening.

As they next woke they found themselves merged with their younger selves, personalities and memories blending, though the oldest remained dominant.  
And so they set out to save not only their friends, and country, but the entire world from plunging into an apocalypse.  
Avoiding suspiscion was easier said than done, and eventually others were told of the secret.

Perceptions were changed, friendships were rekindled, reinvented, or even started from scratch.

Battles were fought, enemies deafeated, but sometimes even the best fall. Though Uzumaki Naruto succeeded in taking out Uchiha Madara, he died along with him.

And so Haruno Sakura and Hatake Kakashi were left to face the aftermath without their beloved companion. A scant few years later, war broke out, between embittered rival villages who had come together, united under the threat posed by Uchiha Madara.

War, while not an apocalypse, is still devastating, and as the last two time travelers fell, weighed down with more regrets than most could even fathom, their only solace was in the thought of being united with their lost blonde friend.

It was then, that they first experienced "looping" as they were once again young and back on that fatefull day of the team selections. When the three reunited, impossibly together and alive, their bond was strenghened, and a resolve to get it right this time burned brightly.

Still, the road to success is a long and often hard one to travel and it would be many "loops" before they got to the ending they had always hoped for. But they did get it, and as they passed, it was with few regrets, surrounded by friends and family, among them, their children and children's children.

Goal accomplished, this should have been the end. In one tale it might have been. A crueller tale might have had them looping the same world and timeframe forever until all meaning seemed lost. But that's not what happened.

While they did not get to move on to enternal rest, they were not forced to experience the same seemingly meaningless cycle for eternity either.

Instead they were thrust into one adventure after the next, as they found themselves in worlds similar to yet unlike their own. They had set out to save the world, gambled with an impossible jutsu, and unintenionally bound themselves to that role; but who says that there's only one world?


	2. Chapter 1

Butterfly Leaves

Chapter 2

OooO

As Uzumaki Naruto woke that day, he braced himself for the barrage of new memories he knew would come.

Over the last who knew how many centuries, he had experienced and saved countless worlds and experienced several versions of what his life could have been.

He had lived a practically fairy tale life with his parents (and saved that world from a psycopath who fused himself with a fire demon from Demon Country, it never stood a chance against a Bijuu, and Kurama, always with Naruto, even when his counterpart was locked in another host, was only too happy to prove that) in one world, but been faced with devastingly cruel versions of them in another, where killing them had nearly torn apart his heart.

He'd been a ROOT agent (and taken down Danzo and the disgusting organization from the inside), an adopted Uchiha, a missing nin, an elite ANBU, A Whirlpool nin (he was devastated to learn that Konoha had fallen in this reality, years before his birth), he'd had a twin (the gender varied) in several worlds; he'd seen the good be bad, and vice versa; sometimes even the basic structure of the Ninja system differed.

Among the hardest (aside from the world where his parents were evil) were the ones where for one reason or another, his lovers, either one or both, weren't with him. In one world Kakashi had died in place of Obito, in another he'd never been born, and so on.

The same with Sakura, either she was dead or she never exsisted, or in the worst cases it just wasn't them. (Their counterparts would have the same name, same background, same voice, same appearance, hell sometimes even the same basic personality, but for whatever reason, their souls didn't match.)

It didn't happen often, but when it did it was always gutwrenching, and sometimes even got him killed, restarting that world's loop until he could pull it together.

Kakashi and Sakura had experienced the same, and reunions always ended with them drunk out of their minds, experiences having been tearfully relayed, and copious amounts of sex leaving them sore all over, but feeling better than they had in ages.

Yes, somewhere along the way they'd become lovers, a threesome if you will. Kurama sometimes joined in, (Naruto having long ago fashioned a sturdy, virtually indestructable clone, which the fox could possess. It could last for weeks if enough chakra was used, but the first few runs had relayed back the memories to Naruto, which got annoying for both, so Naruto slaved for weeks until he found a way to stop that), but mostly he henged into a fox (the smaller the object the more chakra is needed to henge, which is why most ninja only ever transform into other people, but since chakra was something he had in abundance, that wasn't an issue) and ran off to mate with either a local fox, or if he was in the mood, a demon. (Demon Country isn't hard to get to,even from countries away, when you're a demon.) Or sometimes even a random human.

Naruto really hoped this wasn't a "bad world" as he'd come think of some of them. Last world had been relatively peaceful, and after preventing a small scale war, they had retired early, and opened up a big bookstore-café, with worldfamous ramen. (It was hard to say who was more horrified, Naruto when he found out Ichiraku's didn't exsist, or Kakashi when he found out Jiraiya had never written Icha Icha. "The Orange Toad Café" served a veriety of things, but ramen was the main attraction. Naruto had learned from Teuchi himself, and was determined to do him proud. Likewise Kakashi wrote all the Icha Icha books from memory, and Published them under the name "Shiroi Gama" meaning White Toad in honor of the original Jiraiya. Most of the enormous proceeds were donated to charity. Particularly orphanedges)

But they had not neededed more than one loop to reach that happy ending, and the world before that had been particularly harsh. Not only was the threat a large one, Naruto was all alone. The Kakashi of that world was apparently an asshole who had tried to kill Naruto and had subsequently been publically excecuted for it. That had thrown the blond so far over the deep end that he'd ended up blugeoning himself to death by repeatedly banging his head against the wall. Relooping woke him back to his senses, and he raked his new memories for Sakura. That revealed two things. One, Sakura had died when Iwa bombed the accademy two years ago (killing six kids, her among them) and two, he was a GIRL! Oh it had been funny when Kakashi had been the one in that situation. But then again, that world had been peaceful, with the only major conflict taken care of early. All three of them had been there and the sex had been great.

But Naruto was alone, Kakashi's counterpart had wanted him/her dead, Sakura had died protecting his female host (they were apparently best friends along with Ino), a war was apparently already going on, and no matter how fun orioke no jutsu was, it was not his real form. Had things been different the blow to his manhood might not have been so bad, if at all, but as it was it was, that was the last straw and Naruto had driven a Rasengan through his/her heart.

This was repeated for at least five loops until Naruto finally pulled out of the slump enough to start work on his task. At least he was still named Naruto.  
According to Kakashi and Sakura, they too had both encountered worlds with a female Naruto, same looks, same name, but upon further analysis, not the same soul. (Though in more fartfetched worlds, the name differed, which actually made things less stressful for them.) They often shared many traits, but it was obvious that she was not just his female counterpart, instead she was more like his interdimensional sister with the same name. According to Kakashi, the worst experience for him was when he encountered a Naruto who was the same in every way except for soul (and Sakura was dead). Same age, same base experiences, same name even. Hell even a similar personality.

But then the differences showed. He was slightly less optimistic by nature. He was smarter, and more cunning than Naruto had been at that age. What was at first glance, a carbon copy of the world they originally came from, was in fact fundamentally different, on baser levels. Apparently Minato and Kushina had never excisted and this Naruto had a different set of parents entirely. But that didn't explain the different soul, as Naruto had found himself in a similar situation a few worldhops later. He was born to parents who weren't Minato and Kushina, there never was a Namikaze clan, and yet he was still him.

Sakura had encountered an even worse experience as she found herself alone in a world with an evil Naruto. Kakashi was dead. She almost went insane, but made it through with the knowlege that her lovers were still out there and that she wasn't really killing her Naruto. It still hurt her.  
As he lay staring at ceiling, he noticed it was the semi-familiar ceiling of his room in the Namikaze mansion. Gods, he hoped his parents weren't evil. He couldn't find the energy to deal with a twin either, his melancholy thoughts having left him weary and in no mood to try and maintain the close bond that had been present between most of his hosts and their twins. But mostly he just really hoped both his lovers would be here with him and that the conflict they were meant stop/prevent wasn't too huge.

He yawned, and then memories assaulted him.

OooO

Okay, so far so good. He'd led a happy life with both his parents and even had a few younger siblings. Kakashi was alive, and so were Obito and Rin. This Kakashi was little stiff and while he wasn't completely hung up the rules, he didn't like breaking them either, unless absoloutely necessary (or if Obito nagged him long enough). He was ALWAYS on time. It was actually kinda freaky to the dominant mind. He (Naruto) was good friends with Hinata, Kiba and Sasuke. Sakura was heavily entrenched in the Sasuke fanclub, warring with Ino just like in the original timeline. Naruto groaned as he thought of his own fanclub, which was just as insane.

Well, he'd just have to announce his relationship with Sakura first thing. That usually made them back off. Mostly because they quickly learned to be terrified of Sakura. Kakashi couldn't be revealed officially until they were at least sixteen, they'd never hear the end of it otherwise. Hell Kakashi had even been killed by Sarutobi once. To all outsiders he'd be considered a pedophile, and had Naruto really been twelve years old, that death would have certainly been justified. But truth is often stranger fiction, and Naruto had killed Sarutobi in a fit of rage, being killed by ANBU in turn (he pretty much let them so the loop could restart). The next loop he realised they'd been foolish and that Sarutobi had been in the right. So kissing in public was definately out. (Even when it was a desperate reunion after an agonizing time apart, restraint in public was paramount.)

Stretching, the whisker marked shinobi began getting ready for the day. Today was team assignments.

Namikaze Minato sighed heavily, causing the papers on desk to flutter slightly. He'd been up all night dealing with mundane paperwork, and he still had yet to decide on how best to set up the teams. Okay, he'd already skimmed over classes one - five and just gone with the suggested teamups, simple enough. But class six, was his son, Naruto's class. Not only that, all the major clans' kids in that age group were in that class. He not only had to consider what was best for Naruto, but also make sure he kept the clans happy.

He knew the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans were expecting him to set up the next generation InoShikaChou trio, but was that really what was best? Certainly it was a powerful combo, and he knew his predescessor, Sarutobi Hiruzen, would have gone with it in a heartbeat, but was it really the most fruitful course of action?

Running a tired hand through his lengthy blonde locks, he stared out at Konoha through the large windows overlooking the village square and the Hokage Mountain.

The sun was slowly colouring the sky a variety of pastels, and a soft breeze stirred the leaves of the trees.  
He smiled softly, looking at his village always made him feel better. At that thought he let his eyes roam over the picture frames on his desk. Photo's of his family and friends smiling up at him. There was Naruto, on his tenth birthday, blowing out candles while his parents stood proudly behind him, Sasuke and Hinata could just be glimpsed in the background.

There was the old team photo of him, Kakashi, Rin, and Obito. (If Kakashi hadn't thrown that Hiraishin kunai after he'd lost his eye, things might have turned deadly. As it was, they all survived and his team's friendships blossomed, their bonds strengthened. It was that bond which had made them disobey orders, and follow him and Kushina the day Naruto was born. If they hadn't been at the cave at that moment, the masked Uchiha might have succeeded with his nefarious plans.)

A family portrait, taken just two months ago. Naruto (vibrant and grinning mischieviously), Minato (smiling softly, for once not in his official robes), Kushina (beautiful, red hair gleaming, violet eyes sparkling with with laughter), Kakashi (face covered by that infernal mask, but his dark eyes showed clear amusement), Rin (a sweet smile on her face, her arms wrapped around Obito's neck), Obito (right hand raised in a V sign, eyes carefully watching the child in his lap) and in Obito's lap was Mito (long blonde pigtails falling past her shoulders, an impish grin widening the whisker marks on her cheeks, blue eyes sparkling), while the two-year-old twins Hikari and Yasako were asleep in Minato's arms (red hair obscuring their whisker marks).  
A knock pulled him from his musings. "Come in." He called, never having been one for uttering the more formal "Enter."

As if called forth by his thoughts his white-haired former student came strolling in, oddly relaxed, arms behind his head, (was he whisteling?!) eyes closed as he shut the door behind him.  
Gaping slightly Minato cleared his throat slightly "Alright who are you and what have you done with Hatake Kakashi?" Half joking, but with a tiny bit of suspiscion.

Kakashi blinked lazily. Then he "hmm'd". "Well you see Sensei, that mission a few months back" (Minato winced. Kakashi had almost died, his injuries were severe, and if he hadn't made it to the gates before he collaped, he'd have never recieved help in time. He was out for a week and had to stay in the hospital for another two, before they finally let him out. But worse, was the torture before he escaped. Death and possible torture by the enemy were not uncommon in the ninja world, even Konoha had their own T&I department. There was even a brutal training program to resist torture, which was madatory for high chunin, jounin and especially ANBU. That didn't make it any easier to stomach for Minato when it was his own student. Nor were torture victims expected to be the same if and when they made it back) "got me thinking," Minato raised an eyebrow "I've spent the last few months doing some soul searching. Yeah I know, crazy right, but I think Obito's been rubbing off on me, Naruto too I guess."

He scratched his head. "So I've decided to tone it down a bit, live a little y'know?" He sighed, and then cleared his throat. "So on that note, I've decided that I'll do it." Minato opened his mouth to.. "I'll take a gennin team." The blonde Hokage's mouth hung open as his eyes bugged out slightly. Blinking he cleared his throat. "That's, wow, that's, really... after all those years of arguing and having to force you into testing a team, only for you to fail them each time, I was actually gonna let you off the hook this year." Kakashi smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkeling. Minato continued "Alright then lets" "On one condition." Minato blinked as his student interrupted him. Raising eyebrows he enquired "Oh, and what might that be? " The man before him smirked, (years of knowing him made reading his expressions easy despite the mask) "I get to pick the team." Minato's eyebrows raised even further "Is that so, and what makes you think I'll agree to that? The teams have already been assigned. I can't just play favorites you know." The man had the gall to snort. "Oh please, I know you're still trying to figure out how to sort the clan kids and Naruto." Minato stared incredolusly. "You've been agonising over it for months, and I saw your desk yesterday, paperwork is worse than ever this month, I knew you'd use it as an excuse to procrastinate." Minato sputtered slightly, and glared at his insolent student, before sighing.

He could swear Kakshi was actually amused, as he continued. "I've been observing Naruto's class for while, and I've put together some teams I think could really work." Minato gave the former ANBU a hard stare. "Is that so, and what prey tell would those be? And why are telling me this NOW a few short hours before the team selections?! I've been pulling my hair out! I even asked you yesterday!" Kakashi was actually snickering at him now! At his look the man just progressed to fullblown laughter. Anger deflating, Minato just stared, eyes slightly wide. It was rare that Kakashi just let loose like this outside of a bar or a partularly rowdy family get together.

Minato also realised they'd actually engaged in banter in his office. He subtly scanned the man. There was no way he was an imposter. His chakra was unmistable and not masked beyond that of a regular off duty jounin's. Minato was no Inuzuka, but he had a fairly good nose when he added chakra, and the man's scent was the same. He radiated no threat, in fact Minato felt more relaxed in his prescense than he had in months.

"Alright let's hear it." He sighed. The laughing man quickly got himself under control, and handed him a piece of paper. Skimming it his eyebrows rose slightly at the proposed teams. Team 7: Namikaze Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Akimichi Chouji under Hatake Kakashi. Team 8: Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Yamanaka Ino under Yuhi Kurenai. Team 10: Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru and Uchiha Sasuke under Sarutobi Asuma. The blonde Hokage blinked, this was certainly different. Kakashi had only listed the ones his own notes deemed most likely to pass.

"That's an interresting way of sorting them. Also most of the aspiring Jounin have been clamouring to get Naruto on their team, inlcuding Obito and Rin, what makes you the most qualified? Also you've not chosen to go with the InoShikaChou trio why? And why have you chosen Asuma and Kurenai for the rest and not Obito and/or Rin? That aside, why Haruno Sakura? Isn't she a fangirl? You hate fangirls."

Kakashi gave him an even look. "Naruto is brimming with potential, but he can get a bit carried away sometimes. He needs steady guidance and occasional disciplin. Anyone else would coddle him or expect too much of him too soon. Those that don't know him would hinder him in the long run if they were to become his sensei, one way or another. Obito would let him get away with too much. That's not say Obito would be a bad teacher, in fact he's our wild card. If you put him with one of the teams expected to fail, we might just have a exstra team this year, same with Rin. As for the InoShikaCho trio, well there's no argueing that their fathers were excellent together and they'd undoubtedly make a great team too. But Ino is too bossy and too concerned with superficial things, for her own good. She'd walk all over those boys and they'd let her. Kiba and Shino will challenge her and broaden her horizons and Kurenai will be strong female rolemodel who will hopefully break her of her fangirl tendencies.

"Shikamaru is lazy as hell, and Sasuke will be the perfect sparring partner to make him take his training more seriously. Hinata's friendship with Sasuke will help keep him in line, and keep her out of her shell. Asuma will be a welcome change from their respective clans and as the Sandaime's son he knows a thing or two about familial pressures. They'll round eachother out perfectly.

"Chouji is a good kid with a lot of hidden potential, that I'd like to help bring out. As for Sakura, well I can tell you right now that most of her behaviour in class was an act." Minato's eyebrows rose ever higher. "From what I saw, she and Naruto have been secret friends for a while. Apparently her civiallian parents don't want her to be a ninja in the long run. If they knew about her friendship with Naruto they'd try their best to force a marriage contract and Sakura would never hear the end of it. She's confided in Naruto that she plans to become emancipated as soon as she's made Gennin. She's been hiding her potential so she can have an ace up her sleeve. Apparently she did have a crush on Sasuke, but after it ruined her friendship with Ino, she started to grow out of it. But it kept her parents occupied and made everyone else underestimate her, so she kept it up. Of course I don't normally make a habit of spying on children, but in observing the class for possible candidates, I happened to notice Naruto and Sakura sneak off and so naturally I followed them."

Minato was reeling when Kakashi finished. He had no idea the man had so much insight when it came to children. He didn't know what what uprooted him more, the fact that Naruto had kept a friendship from him, or the fact that said friend, an accademy student!, had managed to fool everyone around her into thinking she was a weak fangirl whose only real talent was immense booksmarts and excellent chakra control. Sure she'd had promise, but the challenge was getting her mind off of Sasuke and onto actual studies. And now that was moot since she apparently had no real interrest in the Uchiha, and already far surpassed all opnions of her.

Well damn. That revelation alone was enough to make him latch onto Kakashi's advice, but aside from that, Kakashi's reasoning really was sound.  
A sharp nod indicated to Kakashi that the meeting was over and Kakashi's findings would most likely be put into action.  
As the blonde turned back to his paperwork, Kakashi left the room in a shunshin.

Kakashi sighed in relief, running a hand through his hair. That went as well as could be expected. And now he'd secured naruto and Sakura on his team. Chouji had been his student a few worlds back, and the boy had been a hard worker when properly motivated.  
They'd even managed to work out a way to convert any excess fat into eextra chakra with adverse effects. That meant that if he trained hard in controlling and increasing his chakra, he could eventually have a boatload of chakra and the figure he'd always secretly dreamed of.  
Kakashi meant what he'd said earlier. Those combo's really did work well, and it was always fun to mix it up a bit. Chouji was a good student, easy to motivate, he wouldn't immidiately notice anything ammiss and once he did, he'd likely be close enough to the them all that he'd confront them before telling someone else.

When Kakashi had awoken that morning he'd been bombarded with memories of a a life followed a happier road from one changed descision. This was what his original life could have been. Memories of a particularly gruesome torture session in Iwa were fairly fresh in his mind, and part of him was still scarred from the experience. The dominant half however had had much worse. Still, finding Naruto and Sakura for few hours of bedroom fun at his appartment, would go a long way to soothing him.

OooO

Haruno Sakura awoke to memories of a life and world that was eerily similar to her original. She was a Sasuke fangirl, she and Ino were frenemies, her parents were workaholics, who wanted her to get married and raise bunch of children. They were never there for her and had been horrible toward Naruto in her orginal world. She held no love for them.

On the other hand things weren't exactly the same. Naruto's parents were alive for one. They seemed to be decent people, and loving parents. She felt glad for Naruto. Still the little part of her that remained from the previous world missed the loving parents who had loved her and always supported her and her friends and her choices. The best parents she could want. Maybe one day this whole looping buisness would be over and they'd be united with everyone they'd lost.

But part of her had gotten used to the loops, anitcipated them even. She got to help people in need, and experience new places. Still, she missed the world they'd orignally saved the most. She cried for it at times, other worlds too. All the people they'd left behind. She mourned the orginal Ino her best friend who died in the war before they ever even thought of travelling baclk in time. She mourned everyone she'd known and loved. But above all she mourned the fact that she'd likely never see them again. She'd never know what lay beyond real death.

But as long as she had Naruto and Kakashi, she'd be okay. She just hoped this world wasn't a bad one. That they were them and not someone else.

AN: I hope you enjoyed it. I can't say when future chapters will appear or how long they will be.  
I hope to start a new fanfic trend in this genre. Feel free to take the concept, or even the story itself and give it your own twist. You could even write about one of their previous loops or future loops. I'd be honoured.  
Have a great day. And thanks for reading.


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